Nathan Vardi at Forbes reports:
Herbalife , the controversial nutritional supplements seller, delivered a blow to its adversaries on Tuesday by reporting first-quarter earnings that suggested its business model was not as broken as some had predicted.
Herbalife reported that in the first three months of 2015 it earned $1.29 per share on an adjusted basis, beating consensus estimates on Wall Street that had called for the company to earn $1.01 per share, the bottom of the company’s first quarter earnings guidance of $1.00 to $1.10 per share.
In addition to the earnings beat, the company raised its earnings per share guidance for 2015 to a range of $4.30 to $4.60 per share. The previous range Herbalife had given investors was $4.10 to $4.50 per share. Herbalife posted revenue of $1.11 billion in the first quarter of 2015,
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Very Few Herbalife Distributors Stake Claim In Herbalife Lawsuit
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
In a recent pyramid scheme lawsuit that Herbalife Ltd. agreed to settle, few distributors who received notice of the US $17.5 million agreement filed claims to recuperate their losses and obtain product refunds.
Although notices were sent to more than 1.5 million individuals, fewer than 7,300 claims were filed, court records showed. The average claimant who meets certain criteria will receive roughly $1,100 from a $15-million cash settlement fund, according to court documents filed this month.
The claims rate of 0.47 percent “is a clear red flag that the class notice program was inadequate and unfair,” Douglas Brooks, a Massachusetts-based lawyer who represented 18 distributors objecting to the settlement, wrote in April 20 court papers.
Herbalife’s outside legal team on Monday countered that the majority of class members who declined to file a claim “confirmed the integrity of
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Herbalife Contacted By Law Enforcement Agencies
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Federal law enforcement agencies recently contacted several Herbalife members for information about their own business practices, CNBC has learned.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the inquiries came last week and focused on the activities of 10 or so mostly top Herbalife members.
It’s unclear exactly what law enforcement asked for, or the identities of the specific members in question.
Sources say the company has offered the members assistance in obtaining legal counsel though it’s unclear how many have sought representation.
Separately, Herbalife has also received inquiries recently about irregular trading in its stock as part of a broader investigation into possible market manipulation.
When asked for a comment on Sunday evening Herbalife spokesman Alan Hoffman provided CNBC the following statement:
“Bill Ackman has been engaged in a nearly three-year effort to drive down Herbalife’s stock in
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Herbalife Partners with Global Health Strategies Institute To Improve Children’s Nutrition In India
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Herbalife (HLF), a global nutrition company, today announced a one-year partnership with Global Health Strategies Institute (GHSI), to help improve the nutrition of more than 10,000 children ages 5-12 in India, in line with the government’s Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM) and School Health Programs (SHP).
As part of its corporate social responsibility efforts, Herbalife will work with GHSI and global vitamin supplier DSM, to help provide access to good nutrition to children in India, a country with a history of malnourished, underweight children. The government-run MDMS and SHP programs are designed to improve the nutritional needs of children by providing food supplemented with adequate quantities of iron, folic acid and vitamin A. However, more fortified foods with essential micronutrients are needed.
Anjali Nayyar, senior vice president, Global Health Strategies Institute, said, “Addressing the nutritional needs
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Herbalife Unveils Massive Public Relations Blitz In Response To Critics
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
LA Times reports: Amid relentless attacks on its business model, Los Angeles nutritional products company Herbalife Ltd. is firing back at its critics with its first Southern California television advertisements in more than a decade.
With a big rally in downtown Los Angeles, the company kicked off a massive public relations campaign that portrays its products as effective in helping users lose weight and stay fit.
Herbalife has traditionally shied away from expensive television advertising, instead relying on its independent salespeople to spread the word about its weight-loss and nutrition products through personal contacts. It also promotes the company through a variety of sponsorships, including the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.
But the company decided to change its strategy as activist investor Bill Ackman continued his two-year, high-profile attack on the company’s business practices.
Ackman has
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Herbalife Wins Major Lawsuit
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
In a second major win for the week, Herbalife’s newest victory is a mark for things to come. Reuters reports:
Herbalife Ltd (HLF.N) won the dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed the maker of weight-loss and nutritional products fraudulently portrayed itself as a legitimate company, and that shareholders lost money because it was actually an illegal pyramid scheme.
U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles said that shareholders led by two pension funds did not show that questions raised about Herbalife’s business by hedge fund manager William Ackman and various investigators showed that the company had fraudulently inflated its stock price.
Ackman and his Pershing Square Capital Management LP have campaigned against Herbalife since December 2012, when they revealed a $1 billion bet against the Los Angeles-based company. Herbalife has long denied it is
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Tables Turn: The FBI Is Investigating Bill Ackman And His Campaign Against Herbalife
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
The FBI and federal prosecutors are interviewing people related to hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman for potential Herbalife stock manipulation, reports The Wall Street Journal.
They’ve asked for documents related to the stock. Neither Ackman nor his hedge fund, Pershing Square, have been served with a subpoena.
Ackman has been publicly shorting Herbalife since December 2012. He has said that the multilevel-marketing nutrition firm is a pyramid scheme and that his hedge fund, Pershing Square, is shorting its stock to zero.
Here’s The Journal on exactly what investigators are trying to figure out in this case:
Prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and New York field office of the FBI have conducted interviews and sent document requests in recent months in connection with the investigation, which is looking into whether people, including some hired by Mr. Ackman,
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Herbalife Makes It Into Guiness Book of World Records
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Herbalife, (HLF), a global nutrition company, joined with its members around the world this weekend to create a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® achievement for most participants in a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout in 24-hours. As part of the event, Herbalife and its members also created a new world record for number of people in a High Intensity Interval Training Workout in one location, with nearly 4,000 people filling the LA Live Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles.
Tens of thousands of independent Herbalife members—along with their customers, friends and family—hosted workouts at local Herbalife nutrition clubs, parks and public meeting spaces across more than 80 countries.
The workout began on Saturday, March 7, at 9:00 a.m. local time in Auckland, New Zealand. Throughout the next 24 hours, workout events were being held in
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Herbalife Hires Republican Consultant To Battle States Attorneys General
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Embattled Herbalife has hired a Republican consultant in a move to head off any action against the company from state attorneys general.
Marcus Reese, a former George W. Bush campaign operative, joins the Los Angeles company as vice president for state and local government affairs, a newly created position, to bring Herbalife’s message to local and state leaders, the company said.
About nine state AGs have looked into allegations by investor Bill Ackman and Hispanic activists that the diet shake company is a pyramid scheme, Ackman has said. Two of them, New York and Illinois, have been identified.
Herbalife denies it’s a pyramid scheme.
The new position is a sign that Herbalife “is still concerned about what the state AGs are doing,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, an Herbalife critic.
Reese, who worked on the 2004 Bush campaign, among others, has been a consultant to Herbalife for the past year at Tusk Strategies, a public affairs consulting firm.
Reese has called himself a “war eagle” who, if not a political operative, would like to do fashion PR for Tom Ford.
Reported by: valuewalk.com
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Herbalife’s Biggest Individual Shareholder Has Added To His Position
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Myles Udland at BusinessInsider.com Reports:
Post Holdings executive chairman Bill Stiritz has added to his stake in Herbalife.
Stiritz, who is Herbalife’s biggest individual shareholder, has added to his 8.2% position in Herbalife during the stock’s recent pullback, according to a report from CNBC’s Scott Wapner.
Wapner, citing sources, also reported that Stiritz had not sold a share of his stake in the company.
Earlier this month, Business Insider’s Julia La Roche reported that Stiritz had most likely suffered paper losses upward of $200 million on his position in the multilevel marketing company, which fell about 50% during 2014.
Stiritz is on the same side of the Herbalife trade as noted activist investor Carl Icahn, who is the company’s largest shareholder. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is well known for being short shares of Herbalife, and in a December 2012 presentation, Ackman called the company a pyramid scheme.
The FTC opened an investigation into Herbalife in March.
In September 2013, when Stiritz first initiated his position in Herbalife, the stock was trading just below $60 per share. On Friday, shares of Herbalife were just below $32.
Following Wapner’s report, shares of Herbalife, which had been lower Friday, were up as much as 3%.